SHREDDER WITH THICKNESS DETECTOR
First Claim
1. A shredder comprising:
- a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded;
a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements in a shredding direction so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein;
a dual-purpose detector configured to detect (a) a presence of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat and (b) a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat; and
a controller configured to operate the motor to drive the cutter elements in the shredding direction responsive to the detector detecting both the presence of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat and that the thickness thereof is less than a predetermined maximum thickness.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A shredder is disclosed. The shredder includes a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded, and a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements. The shredder mechanism enables the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements. The motor is operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein. The shredder also includes a detector that is configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article being received by the throat, and a controller that is operable to perform a predetermined operation responsive to the detector detecting that the thickness of the at least one article is at least equal to a predetermined maximum thickness.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A shredder comprising:
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a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded;
a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements in a shredding direction so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein;
a dual-purpose detector configured to detect (a) a presence of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat and (b) a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat; and
a controller configured to operate the motor to drive the cutter elements in the shredding direction responsive to the detector detecting both the presence of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat and that the thickness thereof is less than a predetermined maximum thickness. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for operating a shredder, the method comprising:
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detecting with a dual-purpose detector (a) a presence of the at least one article to be shredded being inserted into a throat of the shredder and (b) a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being inserted into the throat;
operating a motor to drive cutter elements of the shredder in the shredding direction so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein responsive to the detector detecting both the presence of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat and that the thickness thereof is less than a predetermined maximum thickness. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification